Last Stand
by Arkantos Zarlfright
Summary: What happens when you ask a monster for help in delaying an entire army?


Even the wind was deathly silent when I walked onto the last hill I would ever stand upon.

Although not a whisper could be heard, I could almost hear the gods playing the death knell's bell as I marched towards my final destiny.

The sky was still a dark blue, melding nicely against the deep green of the forests along the landscape. Within minutes the sun would rise and it would be day once more.

I sighed, but continued walking.

The earth thrummed a deep rumbling sound the further I walked, almost anticipating the upcoming calamity.

Closer and closer, like the vibrations made in the bosom of a barrel chested man, the earth shook with the beat of ten of thousand marching footsteps.

The swaying grass atop the hill swished from left to right in the breeze before it was crushed beneath the boot of my left heel.

As far as the eye could see from the top of this hill was a sea of azure blue and charcoal grey uniforms, entirely covering the landscape. Every single one of them was equipped with swords and shields, either in hand or strapped to their bodies via a strict strap of leather.

A freezing chill, similar to when told that a family member of yours is in hospital for an unknown reason, ran from head to toe in my body.

The Hokage had known that the Krugari army was massive, but even our best intelligence reports could not have anticipated this mobile army of what seemed an endless stream of foot soldiers.

There was more people in front of me than ants in three dozen of anthills, even Shino would have been impressed by the sheer quantity of these vermin in front of Konoha.

I sighed, but continued walking.

The only reason that this enemy army could get so close to our home is that our guard was weakened by a dozen years of war and a recent bloody skirmish.

Not to mention the fact that we lost many of our best shinobi warriors, but luckily we have some monsters still fighting.

This attempted invasion was an inevitability that I predicted and as long as I keep up my part of it, my plan will work. I just have to hold off this army's march for an indefinite amount of time until that idiot Hokage can cast that jutsu of his.

The army ahead noticed the singular figure standing at the top of the hill with his hands in his pocket.

To their dubious credit, they were clearly very organised and prepared. The extended azure and charcoal coloured army was split into 3 main segments. They approached from three separate pathways, directly North, East and North East. It was done in such a way so that Konoha had no exit strategy, considering that the infamously dense Konoha forest was to the South West.

I sighed, and stopped walking.

Commands were yelled out, the army halted. It was like watching a volcano stop in the middle of erupting, unreal. Thousands of bodies immediately stopped marching towards Konoha. Four soldiers with feudal Japanese metal armour on rode white horses ahead of the army towards my location. The one in the lead had a flag with the blood red Krugari symbol strapped to a pole strapped to his back. This was their war-general from the body language of the three following.

As they drew closer I could make out their general's face. He had a slight tan and closed weary eyes, barely any whites showing. He appeared to be well aged, his hair was white-grey and he sported twin handlebars facial hair coming down to meet at his square chin in an almost regal fashion. When they were within 25 metres of my hilltop, they stopped. The general yelled authoritatively,

"We know Konoha is weary from thy war!"

He took a breath to yell louder and more bitterly,

"Surrender immediately or prepare for the bloodiest cull upon these lands. We shan't have mercy upon thou shinobi scum!"

In response, I pull my right hand out of my pocket slowly and reach into the pouch on my thigh. The flap of my pouch is moved out of the way in conjunction with the army general tensing atop of his horse, before I grasp my prize and slip the stick between my lips. I more quickly reach into my left pocket and use the lighter to burn the end of the stick, putting my tool back into the pocket whilst blowing out smoke in response to the demands.

I stare down at the general, my eyes narrow as I mentally count down the seconds.

He glares right back at me, looking into my soul.

Nobody moves.

The tension in the air is palpable.

A decision will be made that everybody in the field knows will decide the course history.

A moment.

The two enemies stare each other down, as 100,000 soldier hold their breath.

The middle aged man on the hill appears to lose eye-contact first, glancing up at the yellowing horizon.

The older general yells a war cry to charge when he sees the smirk on the younger man in front of him.

Thousands charge forward to begin the slaughter when the man on the hill lets out a grotesque roar of pain, excitement and unbridled fear.

This wouldn't have stopped any of the charging soldiers, except for the fact that this was just the beginning signal of a monstrous change to the 'man'.

The shadows of everything within a 100 metre radius slunk along the ground and crawled up and onto his body, wrapping around him and changing the very genetic make-up of the shinobi.

The radius around increased and increased, the dragging of shadows along the ground speeding up as it continued to wrap around and cause the darkness in the texture of the man to darken further and further.

The previously human coloured figure ceased to be coloured anything other than a black darker than any shadow in the world. The wind swirled around it in an almost tornado like fashion, the air full of desperate but determined chakra.

Where a man once stood, now stood a creature that seemed to absorb all light around itself. It's body shape was similar to the man that previous stood in its place, except the light absorbing black seemed to be rippling and moving along it's skin.

It had no eyes, but it could see everything.

It appeared to open its maw, as wide as a snake but with much more teeth, and let out a scream so inhumane that the rest of the army that beforehand ignored the previous cry, were forced to stop and wonder what had been unleashed upon them.

The general had ridden some distance away whilst the transformation was occurring, now turned grimly to gaze upon the true face of the monster he had just conversed with.

Before the general could issue out issue out any more commands to his army, the figure suddenly raised its right arm with a tense like hand grip.

The ground beneath the front quarter of the North army immediately had thousands of pitch black spikes raise from beneath them, crippling and killing thousands of soldiers in a few mere seconds.

The figure flicked his hand forward and those thousands of spikes changed direction and flew into the thousands of soldiers behind the front quarter.

The azure blue armoured soldiers turned crimson, blood from removed limbs and gutted soldiers

The abyss coloured creature appeared to slump its shoulders a bit as though this had all drained a large part of its energy.

The general of the immensely damaged army raised his sword and screamed another war cry, upon which the fanatically loyal soldiers followed even with inhumanely inspired fear in their hearts.

The Shadow let out another monstrous battle cry before running towards the charging army.

Upon first contact, the shadow's limbs changed shape and contorted to stab and skewer any Krugari that came near.

It was a whirl-wind of devastation surround the monster.

The occasional sword cut through the crazed foe, every 100th arrow being landed and imbedding itself within the wildly offensive creature.

After a few minutes of this furious brawl, the weakened creature faces the direction of the majority of the army and in a brief gap in combat, lets out a harrowing yell. This is accompanied by a powerful thrust of both of its arms forwards with its elbows facing outwards.

The yell deepened, as though whatever the creature was doing was ripping itself apart, as the very air around itself and anyone within a 300 metre distance changed.

Shadows began to rise and grow into a huge wall, similar to a ginormous tidal wave. The sky was almost covered by the sheer height of this enormously wide wall of darkness.

Soldiers looked up in confusion at the growing wall, and in fear when the creature let out a final grunt of exertion before the wall began to advance on the army.

The general got off of his horse and looked at the tidal wave of darkness that from his perspective seemed to have consumed every part of earth.

The general gave a look at the creature with hundreds of arrows and slash wounds on its body, sorrowful. He then fell to his knees in despair and anguish, knowing that this was his end.

The giant tidal wave of darkness began to fall down onto the front of the charging army, crushing the bodies of any alive or dead soldiers. Thousands of soldiers screamed as they were murdered in ways that they couldn't comprehend.

The creature in command of these shadows was still holding its position, trying to maintain concentration over the infinite darkness.

A moment passes. Another thousand soldiers die.

The advancing tidal wave of darkness continues to fall and crush those below it before the creature in control drops its arms in exhaustion.

The wave of darkness dissipates and a bit over half of the advancing army can see the sky once more.

The Monster sways on its feet, the once pure unadulterated darkness colouring its texture showing gaps of bloodied skin littering its body from sword injuries.

Dozens upon dozens of ripped and broken arrows stick out of his chest, arms and legs as he sways a bit more on his feet, almost unmoving.

One of the more cowardly sub-generals sees that the creature has stopped its attack and yells a rallying war cry and the army of remaining soldiers slowly start advancing once again.

The creature hardly moves, before the shadow armour surrounding it begins to recede from the original shinobi's body. The shadows crawl down and off of the body, each separate shadow making a wet ripping sound as it does so.

When the final shadow has left the ninja's body, he falls forward onto his hands and knees as the remaining army advances upon him at a cautionary pace.

The devastated enemy approaches the monster that took out half of their forces by himself.

The oddly haired man is resting on his heels when the surviving sub-general approaches.

He glances up at the sky, and lets out a minor 'tsk' to himself.

To the gasping of the hundreds looking at his brutalised and injured body, he stands once again.

Slowly he reaches into his pocket, and the Krugari are too frightened even though they outnumber the lone monster 10,000 to 1.

The singular shinobi pulls out a cigarette, and uses his lighter one last time.

He stares at the remaining general, narrowing his eyes when the sub-general glares in response.

Nobody moves.

The tension is thick enough to choke on.

The shinobi breaks eye contact and glances up to see the planned yellow bright light in the sky.

He smirks and simultaneously withdraws and throws a kunai directly in between the eyes of the last remaining general.

Before the body can hit the ground, the shinobi is skewered by no less than two dozen swords.

The first time since the battle has started, the shinobi opens his mouth to speak.

As he feels his body shutting down, pain receptors no longer registering due to a complete sensational overload he mutters but a singular word.

The last words of Konoha's Jounin Commander, spoken into his earpiece so that those on the recently teleported home-front can know that he ended things on his own terms. The final words of a monster upon humanity.

Troublesome.


End file.
